<p>Isn’t it boring to teach such basic concepts over and over again every single year? Do they just like working with kids, or are they less qualified than high school teachers?</p>
<p>And assuming they do it because they like working with kids, who chooses to teach as a junior high teacher? The concepts aren’t complex and junior high students aren’t really kids.</p>
<p>Many junior high teachers want to be HS teachers.</p>
<p>i don’t know how teachers feel, but when i went to college i got annoyed tutoring people in high school stuff because that seemed really basic too</p>
<p>also elementary school kids are cuuute</p>
<p>I read a sociological study on why teachers become teachers (warning: this book was from 1975, so salt before consumption), and it said that a lot of elementary teachers are women who liked kids and wanted to do it since they were young while a larger portion of high school teachers were people who decided to teach much later, often many years after they graduated from college. This is the same reason why more elementary school teachers than high school teachers are female.</p>
<p>I think that even as parents we identify with one age group more than another. Some people like being around elementary school age kids. Some like being around teenagers. I am sure that is part of it as well.</p>
<p>Is there any credibility to the assertion that some teachers are only teachers because they are too incompetent in their particular subject area to get any other jobs?</p>
<p>kids are cute! and a bit more obedient than high schoolers (of course, depends on the area). i see more younger teacher teaching those levels, too, especially kindergarten teachers. i think my sister (who is 24-ish) is going to be either a elementary or middle school teacher.
oh btw saugus, one of the teachers at my high school graduated a few years ago from the same school as valedictorian with an AA diploma. he is VERY intelligent, but wanted to pursue education. just an anecdote.</p>
<p>Elementary teaching is probably more visceral. You are either good with kids (and hopefully enjoy working with young kids) or not. Maybe on average they aren’t as good at a subject as their high-school counterparts, but I don’t think, necessarily, that they are intentionally settling for a less intellectual job.</p>
<p>I think any teacher would be bored to some degree by teaching the same thing every year. Elementary teachers probably must be sated by a love for kids rather than a love for a particular subject. I guess you could also make the argument that by teaching every subject (rather than just one), they would not get as bored. (But I wouldn’t make that argument, personally.)</p>
<p>My English teacher (a father) once expressed that only being around very young kids for a long period can be intellectually deadening, and I could see how that would be true. Like Esther Greenwood.</p>